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Junior Mafia f/ The Notorious B.I.G. "Players Anthem" (1995)

Produced by: Clark Kent
"I had been working with Clark Kent since like 1992. He was tight with everybody in the industry, artist, executive-wise, everybody, but he was especially tight with Biggie. Having gone on the road as Biggie's DJ, having known almost everybody new coming out of Brooklyn, it was only right that he produce Junior Mafia's first single. Clark didn't get any songs placed on Ready To Die, but he was certainly going to do records with Big. Big was so hot that the fans wanted to hear him rhyme on anything. No one was really interested in Junior Mafia as a group. We all knew it was Big putting his crew on. But as long as he did a couple of records with them, especially dope ones, Atlantic Records knew the project would sell. At the time, Big really was the official King of this music shit, regardless whether cats wanted to recognize or hate, and anything he jumped on became an instant classic.

"Clark knew all the other dope producers who worked with Big had, or were going to make the illest beats for him. So this being an official Brooklyn record, he made sure he captured Big on wax in a way most wouldn't. He had Big rapping and singing. The notes he had dude sing, plus the harmony on the hook, shit was bananas. The bonus was that no one had expected Lil Kim to shine as well as she did on her first single with Big. Their chemistry was just right. He didn't produce that many songs with Big, but Clark did used to say the ones he did produce were going to be classics. And this one proved his words right. Just like 'Who Shot Ya,' we here on the East Coast took 'Players Anthem' as another testament to how Big single handedly brought New York back on his own shoulders. On top of all the heat coming from our city, when that song came on in the club, every cat in the joint felt invincible, like the party would never end. Once again, we had no clue them cats from the other side took that song as further insult, or how they would use it to ride against the click."